‘If She Can, All of You Can’: Violence as a Restoration of the Male Mandate in Vocational Education Training

Abstract

This paper analyses violence as a restoration of both male mandate and power in male-dominated fields, such as in the context of Vocational Educational Training specialising in Transport and Vehicle Maintenance in the Spanish city of Valencia and how women who enter it struggle against it. Our theory is based on the developments made by Judith Butler, who understands gender as a power device, and by Rita L. Segato through the concepts of male mandate and moral violence. We also analyse the resistance that is being deployed against gender normativity. To offer an account of these ideas, our research was designed on a qualitative basis following an abductive approach. We conducted eight biographical interviews, throughout the 2019–2020 academic year, with women who are linked to the automotive sector and to the VET area in question. We can state that their entering into this productive field leads to a denaturalisation of the hierarchy imposed by the male mandate and that in challenging things, it exacerbates the violent practices as a restoration of the male mandate.